Profile Anne Ford Anyone who visited the outpatients department at Addenbrookes between 1970 and 1992 will know Anne Ford – or certainly recognise her. Her calm, kindly professionalism has soothed many a nervous patient. Anne was born Alianora Anne Catt in 1929 in Erith, Kent. Her father was a tram driver and her mother was what we call today ‘a carer’. She was an unofficial nurse, as was her mother before her. Anne has two sisters and a brother and attended a convent school until the war started, when she was evacuated to Sevenoaks. They quickly realised that living in Sevenoaks was no safer, so it wasn’t long before she returned home and she remembers seeing the German squadrons flying up the Thames to bomb London. The war interfered with her education and she left school at 16 to do two years training as a nursery nurse. Both her sisters were nurses, so it followed that when the Nursery Schools were closed, she began training to be a nurse at the Memorial Hospital in Woolwich. Although the work was hard, the hours long and the discipline strict, Anne looks back on this time as one of the happiest periods of her life. The nurses lived in and were well looked after. At Christmas everyone was expected to work through, so on Christmas Eve the young girls turned their capes round, red side out, and went round the wards singing carols. The uniform included a small white triangular hat, blue uniform with long sleeves and stiff white cuffs, white apron, buckled belt and black stockings and shoes. After 3 years of training the hat changed to a slightly larger one with a fold at the front and pleats down the back which had to be resewn every time they were worn. Whilst working on the wards the sleeves were rolled up and covered with a frilled cuff, but for going on the rounds they had to be rolled down. She won an award in 1949 as the Best Practical Nurse! After finishing her training at Woolwich she went on to do a two year Midwifery Course, at Bromley and then at Croydon, doing home visits. After seeing an advertisement in the Nursing Standard, Anne and a friend took a job in St. Helier, Jersey, a very congenial posting as the island was quite un-commercialised at that time. When the year’s contract was up, they decided to travel to Canada in 1953. They landed in Quebec and then went on to Leamington. Nursing was very different – more friendly but still with the same starchy uniform and discipline. She learned to play badminton and went skiing for the first time. After several months she moved to the Veteran’s Hospital in Winnipeg where the nurses had the privilege of wearing the Queen Alexandra hat – a great white, starched, winged job! From there she went to Calgary to a hospital run by nuns before returning to Winnipeg to complete a two year course in radio therapy,
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a then-new treatment. Throughout her time in Canada she took every opportunity of travelling, visiting Vancouver, the north coast and Niagara. In 1957 Anne met her husband-tobe, John, who was stationed in Canada with the RAF training as a navigator. When he returned to the UK she followed in the Queen Mary and in 1957 they were married in Christ’s Church, Erith. They had two sons, Andrew and Paul. Her godfather, the organist and choirmaster at Christ’s Church, started a group of young bellringers of which Anne was a member and this led her to a lifelong interest in bellringing. She enjoyed church architecture and visited many churches in Kent and Sussex. Her godfather also introduced her to classical music. John’s squadron was eventually posted to Bruggen in Germany on the Dutch border. It was during the Cold War and a very tense time. But the young couple enjoyed the life with Mess balls and Ladies Dining In nights. He was finally posted to Bassingbourn where he served for 2½ years, before leaving the service, which is how they came to Melbourn. The transition to civilian life was hard and sadly the couple separated. Anne had two small boys to bring up so she returned to work. In September 1970 she became a Staff Nurse at the new Addenbrookes Hospital. She eventually transferred to the Outpatients Department and spent 22 years moving round the different clinics. She helped to start up the Diabetic Clinic and was often in charge of the departments. Her sons Andrew and Paul went to school in Melbourn and then onto Hills Road, Andrew went on to University doing Photographic Sciences and after graduating worked at the Home Office. He is married with two children, Thomas and Lucy. When Paul left school he went to work for the continued on page 14
